Auxiliary Era project

[TL]

@Skizzaltix: I don't really plan on adding a naga caster to drakes; a cold-based naga would be way too similar to augurs. I'd rather just have the sea witch stay in with the northies use a "nonmagical magic" cold attack (again, see: Ghost), and come up with some other sort of naga to add to drakes.

@Ken_Oh: 4-3 or 5-3 was my initial instinct as well, but a 2-strike attack allows me to set damage per hit high enough to make elves' -10% arcane resist relevant.

Speaking of which, I'm noticing that elves are really lacking for arcane resistance; even after my proposed additions the only positive arcane resistance they'd have would be the mage, which is far too fragile and expensive to be worth anything from a damage-soak standpoint. Maybe some form of animal unit would be called for; I might have to steal the bear from... well, wherever it was originally from (I've seen it seemingly all over the place).

Anyhow, I am happy to report my inspiration has returned, so new units! These aren't quite as polished as most of the rest, but I can always go back and do touch-ups later.

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Here's your elvish noble, Ken_Oh. Also pictured are the poltergeist and saurian husk. The saurian in particular needs some explanation, so I also did up some descriptions.

Saurian Husk: "The practice of necromancy is unknown among the saurians, but their augurs practice other arts, older and equally vile. The most terrible of these uses an elixir of rare herbs and dark rituals to induce a deathlike trance in their still-living brethren; in this state the lifeless husks act as barely-sentient slaves, commanded by their creators' dark magics. It is speculated by some loremasters that these creatures are a precursor to the vile ghoul, and that human necromancers learned such crafts from the saurians themselves. Few have a chance to study these unliving abominations in detail, however; while alone these shambling forms may seem slow and clumsy, they retain a deadly pack instinct and once they have their prey surrounded they rip into it with astonishing speed and viciousness."

Elvish Noble: "While humans must devote considerable time and concentration to learning the magical arts, those elves with the most magical aptitude are often those that spend the least time training magical skills. Elvish mages are dilettantes who spend their waking hours practicing fencing, art, music, and other non-magical pursuits, cultivating a broad worldview which nurtures their innate intuition for magic.

This approach, so radically different from that of humans and their rigidly regimented schools of magi, often leads human observers to misinterpret the place of elvish mages in their society. Their seemingly idle lifestyles coupled with the positions of esteem afforded to individuals of such intelligence and wisdom often lead humans to brand these mages as 'nobles' after their own idiom."

Poltergeist: "The weakest denizens of the spirit world have great difficulty manifesting themselves in semi-corporeal form to attack as more powerful phantasms do, and must rely on inanimate objects as a crutch in order to make their presence felt. This same weakness also provides them one of their greatest stengths, though, for the common household objects they frequently possess offer them an excellent disguise. While relatively easy to detect by daylight, their stealthy movements are often dismissed as mere tricks of the shadows until, alas, it is too late."

[Skizzaltix]

Good point--I had thought of that when I was posting, but apparently not enough.

I like the new units! Especially the poltergeists--Those are just plain cool.

[Rimbecano]

Actually, just as I wrote up the gnome I had an intriguing idea: maybe instead of making up new creatures, create an alternate troll unit to give to elves. Both races have a nature theme, so it may not be a terrible stretch. These could represent more contemplative trolls that don't get caught up by orcish warmongering; maybe a rebel-only troll shaman line. Pros: meshes better with Wesnoth canon. Cons: probably difficult to differentiate from troll whelps as well as existing woses due to ability duplication, easy to fall into the trap of environmental subraces.

IIRC, Tolkienian trolls were a corruption of ents, to which Wesnothian woses are fairly equivalent. So, in a way, especially given the similar characteristics of trolls and woses in Wesnoth (i.e. "regenerating impact tank"), the Rebels already have "more contemplative trolls that don't get caught up in orcish warmongering."

[Turuk]

IIRC, Tolkienian trolls were a corruption of ents, to which Wesnothian woses are fairly equivalent. So, in a way, especially given the similar characteristics of trolls and woses in Wesnoth (i.e. "regenerating impact tank"), the Rebels already have "more contemplative trolls that don't get caught up in orcish warmongering."

Fair enough, but there is something to be said for branching out from what is already established/outlined and setting your own trend.

[Thrawn]

Also, WINLoTR: I think that with regards to the orc/troll lines, we've greatly deviated from the Tolkien mythology.


*(Wesnoth Is Not Lord Of The Rings)

[Ken_Oh]

Yeah, I wouldn't label Wesnoth trolls as corrupt, but rather a very primitive sentient life form that has some mystical (perhaps biological?) connection to stone.

Woses also don't heal themselves in the same way trolls do. It's a troll's magical vitality which causes regeneration, while Woses continuously take in all they need to survive from their environment.

Wesnothian racial heritage is one of biggest things that distinguish it from LotR.

[TL]

Updates: frontiersman, vampire, and level 2 witch (actually, this one will probably be called "witch"; I'll name the level 1 something else):

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Not my best work, but good enough for now.

I've decided to make the witch a costly, fragile specialist rather than a cheapo filler unit. To justify the cost in spite of its very weak magic and low HP I'm giving it heals +4 and a 1-strike poison melee, plus poacher terrain defenses.

I think I should be ready to package a playable demo in the next few days here. No animations yet, and a lot of unit advancements (those that don't merge into existing unit lines, anyhow) probably won't have unique art either, but that's OK.

[Skizzaltix]

Looking good... I assume the Frontiersman will function like a Poacher, but with more of a melee twist?

[TL]

It's kind of a lawful version of a poacher-footpad hybrid. I have it at 6-2 melee and 3-3 ranged, with 6 MP and a slew of movetype perks.

[Turuk]

I really like the witch, both the unit idea and the art. The frontiersman will be a nice little change as well.

I think I should be ready to package a playable demo in the next few days here. No animations yet, and a lot of unit advancements (those that don't merge into existing unit lines, anyhow) probably won't have unique art either, but that's OK.

I am looking forward to this, even if it's not all together in terms of the animations or proper art. If the stats are there people can start playing with and testing your Era to give you some feedback.

[TL]

I think I've got just about everything in place in terms of "must-have" units, so I went ahead and put an early version on the add-ons server. This is still incomplete in terms of units included (let alone art); northerners and drakes in particular haven't gotten much love yet; rebels and knalgans still have a few odd units I'd like to put in, but have the most important additions I've got planned. Loyalists and undead are for the moment "complete" (barring some possible forked upgrades), although I wouldn't rule out adding a couple new units there.

Given the very rough state of the era, balancing will be pretty tentative at this point, but I figured I'd go ahead and put it out there.

[Civhai]

Really nice! Good work. Can I use the skeleton cavalery in my UMC? Can you give me the sprites then?

[TL]

Sure. It's on add-ons, so you can download it and take whatever you'd like from it. The skeleton cavalry is actually a tweak of a skeleton cavalry sprite that's packaged in the mainline distribution (it's used in a couple of campaigns).

Haven't been working on this era for the past several days, but the MP campaign I'm working on should be pretty fertile ground for implementing new units.

[adit8888]

where? I look for it in the addon server but ican't find it anywhere

[Gambit]

This thread is over a year old. The addon was for version 1.4. You can find it here, but you'll have to update it yourself.
By the way; that link came from http://addons.wesnoth.org in case there are other ancient addons you happen to be looking for.